A very human CTO ushers in human-centred era for SMX
A very human CTO ushers in human-centred era for SMX
Over the last year, we’ve been listening to customers to understand their needs, how we add value and how we can do more. That’s given us the information we need to refocus technology, development areas and product vision around the end user.
“It’s been an incredibly satisfying process, and we’ve got good responses right through the customer base,” says CEO Richard Fraser. “While SMX is used to being technology-led, we now want our leadership to better recognise the end-user problem in what we build and how we build it. Cyber security is a personal problem not one for a mass market fix approach.”
While our email technology leadership and local presence here in Asia Pacific uniquely position us to support our customers, there’s more we can do to build SMX products with people at the core.
2023, then, will be the year we build strength into SMX, its products, vision and ability to execute on that vision – and we have renewed leadership to help take us there. That’s why we’re so pleased to welcome Mark Bailey as our new CTO.
Introducing Mark Bailey – passionate about keeping users safe
Mark brings over 20 years of experience in technology leadership and a proven record of building and leading product and technology teams, always with a focus on people.
Our renewed commitment to human-centred technology drew Mark to the role in the first place.
“I’ll be working to strongly integrate the technology and engineering functions with the heart of organisations, to deliver on their vision of creating solutions that serve people,” he says.
To Mark, protecting email means he can be at the pointy end of protecting people.
“Even as far back as twenty years ago, people were saying that email was dead. Well, it’s still here, and it’s still a major threat vector. It’s ubiquitous and is the default way you access so many systems.”
Mark has worked in roles offering digital products and services. His role as CTO at SMX brings those two sides of his expertise together.
A focus on people, not just tech
Mark says his remit and vision for the role are intertwined – to create technology and engineering functions that are integrated with the rest of the business.
“It’s the only way to deliver on that vision of human-centred technology,” he explains.
That takes more than just tech expertise – something that SMX already has plenty of, says Mark.
“We already have deep technologists in the organisation. My remit is to help them better understand what they need to deliver to customers with a solid engineering culture, inspiring career pathways and by embracing modern ways of working.
Customers will have a stronger alignment between the front and back ends of the business, which will create features and improvements in the products based on their needs, and how they use the products to protect their brand and their people. At SMX we believe Cyber Security is a people problem not a technology problem, and we offer our clients solutions that are informed by data to help protect end users in their own business or personal scenario.
Ultimately, says Mark, this technology should be invisible to the end user in providing a great user experience underpinned by powerful & useful security.
“Our customers will notice better business outcomes, and our channel partners will see greater support from us.”
All exciting stuff and a great start to 2023, we would love to hear what human-centred technology means to you? Drop us a line.